Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

Yes, something's brewing regarding the reconfiguration of the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park plan. We just don't know the details. At the Quality of Life meeting earlier this month, Tobi Jaiyesimi, Atlantic Yards Project Manager for Empire State Development (ESD)--the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project-- said there were "no updates to share at this time" regarding the delayed platform. The first phase had been scheduled to start last spring, and would support three of the six towers over the Vanderbilt Yard. Since last spring, it's gotten teased as imminent in the bi-weekly Construction Updates, subject to receipt of permits. Affordable housing delay That delayed platform means it's impossible for developer Greenland Forest City Partners to deliver the remaining 876 (or 877) affordable housing units by May 2025, out of the required 2,250 units. But the developer, dominated by Greenland USA, surely does not want to pay the $2,000/month fines for...

It's a near impossibility that master developer Greenland Forest City Partners, dominated by Greenland USA, can deliver the required 2,250 affordable housing units by May 31, 2025, as established in a June 2014 agreement , which assigns $2,000/month fines for each missing unit. After all, the 876 (or 877) units needed haven't even started, despite plans floated to start B5, 700 Atlantic Avenue, which would be built in tandem with the first block (of two) of the platform over the Vanderbilt Yard, which was supposed to start in 2020 and then to start this spring. No wonder that, in March 2021, then Empire State Development (ESD) Chair Steven M. Cohen suggested a legislative “fix” might be needed to enable the project to meet its affordable housing obligations. Nothing has emerged, though I speculated that it could mean a targeted extension or modification of the Affordable New York tax break, which expired in June 2022, or a relaxation of the deadline, though GFCP had previously...

Thanks (former Mayor Bill), de Blasio. Last week, I (and other reporters ) received yet more announcements of extensions of time from the Mayor's Office to respond to pending Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests. Most of mine concern Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, of course.  About 80 Flatbush But one I filed in October 2018 regarded penalties for a delayed start regarding Phase 2 of the 80 Flatbush project nearby. That's important, since it relates to the delivery of key public benefits, notably affordable housing, that led legislators to approve a spot rezoning. Nobody would tell me the penalties, as I wrote last May for Bklyner. As I was writing the article, wondering about the penalties, I admonished myself: I should have filed a FOIL request.   But I had!  I just had forgotten, because I hadn't gotten a response. Now, the mayor's office tells me, regarding that request: You can expect a response on or about Wednesday, March 23, 2022. Additional Information: D...

So, how do things really work in Albany?  Cuomo's new ethics chair ran governor's 'defense' program , wrote the Times-Union's Chris Bragg 2/21/21, offers a revealing anecdote: In 2015, longtime Cuomo aide Linda A. Lacewell set up a little-noticed program spanning the executive branch. Lacewell, at that point in the post of "chief risk officer" for the Executive Chamber, embedded highly paid senior attorneys in two dozen state agencies. ...A function of “special counsels” embedded at state agencies, according to sources speaking on condition of anonymity, has been helping flag and manage potentially troublesome Freedom of Information Law requests filed with those agencies by the media and others — exactly the sort of requests that are at the center of the administration's controversial handling of nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic. Cuomo's administration often drags out, by months and even years, the release of public records. Hmm, so th...

I recently read Eric Eyre's excellent and troubling book Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opiod Epidemic . I'll refer you to reviews in the New York Times and Washington Post , which laud the shoe-leather reporting and "sustained outrage" exhibited by both Eyre and the newspaper where he worked, West Virginia's Charleston Gazette . (That philosophy came from its crusading and idiosyncratic owner, Ned Chilton. I worked at the Gazette in 1980s for four-and-three-quarter years.) Eyre doggedly pursued information from a variety of sources, advantaged by his years of experience, plus the few degrees of separation in a state, and capital city, as small as West Virginia. Pressuring the Attorney General But one key set of documents were U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) records referenced in an unsealed lawsuit filed by the state Attorney General's office against a major drug distributor, reco...

At the Community Update meeting Wednesday night, Forest City Ratner executive Ashley Cotton reported that 461 Dean Street, the modular tower also known as B2, has reached the 18th floor (of 32), with construction continuing steadily. Resident Peter Krashes then posed a question to state officials, referring to my 8/31/15 article in City Limits,  Documents Reveal Woes at Pioneering Atlantic Yards Building , which was based on state documents through September 2014 that were provided in response to a Freedom of Information Law request. "One of the things that jumped out at me," said Krashes, his earnestness seemingly tempered by years of jousting over transparency, "is that the owner's representative [for the state] asked Forest City, the project manager for Forest City, three times for air monitoring to demonstrate that the mold hasn't extended beyond [updated and clarified] what is visible. And there isn't a response." To be clear, the owner'...

Those reading my City Limits article, Documents Reveal Woes at Pioneering Atlantic Yards Building , note that the troubles in the building described are from 2012 through 2014. Indeed, the documents from the state's owner's representative I received through a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request ended in September 2014. I've posted the documents on Scribd and linked them below. (Note that I filed the FOIL request in September 2014, though the documents were not delivered until late July of this year.) So the documents can't describe the current condition of the building, and both the developer and the state are terse but positive about the situation today. Indeed, the building, slated to be 32 stories, is steadily rising, though we don't know how long it takes to build modules or construct a floor. Nor do we know the level of interior or facade repairs, which are hinted at in bi-weekly Construction Updates but surely not part of the plan for modular c...

Forest City Ratner, I've learned, has found a second bailout regarding to the 2005 pledge to pay $100 million cash for Vanderbilt Yard development rights and spend well more than $100 million on a replacement railyard. After all, Forest City in 2009 renegotiated a delayed payment schedule with gentle terms, and got the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to agree to a smaller railyard than promised. First Atlantic Yards EB-5 And now I've learned that Forest City will use below-market financing achieved by marketing public assets--green cards, under the federal EB-5 program--to pay the MTA and to build the railyard. It's a brilliant tactic to save money, since the EB-5 program rewards developers for "job creation," though no new jobs actually need be created. The immigrant investors park $500,000 and accept little interest because their main goal is green cards. Deceptive pitches And it's another example of how, when it comes to selling Atlant...

Could it be that Larry Schwartz, a key aide  (Senior Advisor and Secretary) to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his predecessor David Paterson never communicated with developer Forest City Ratner? No, it's either that he never kept records subject to the state Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), or the state is stonewalling. I'd been told that that Forest City communicates directly with the governor's office, going above Empire State Development (ESD) when necessary. So in July 2012, not long after I received documents related to ESD official Peter Davidson's trip to China on behalf of Forest City Ratner's EB-fundraising effort, indicating that Schwartz had approved Davidson's travel,  I sent a FOIL request for: copies of records, including email messages and memoranda, regarding communications between Lawrence S. (Larry) Schwartz of Governor’s Office and executives of Forest City Ratner, specifically MaryAnne Gilmartin, Bruce Ratner, Bruce Bender, and Ashley Cotto...

The request by elected officials and community groups to tie approval of Forest City Ratner's planned joint venture with the Chinese government-owned Greenland Group--to sell 70% of the remaining 15 towers--to a new timetable should be seen in full context. New York State seems far less interested in preserving the public interest than doing Forest City Ratner's bidding. In a telling example, the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC, or ESD) sent a top official to China in 2010 to help Forest City Raise cheap capital, asking for nothing in return. According to documents I acquired, ESDC sent then-Executive Director Peter Davidson for a week to help Forest City raise  $228 million  from potential immigrant investors. That saved  more than $100 million  on conventional financing, by my calculation. Under the federal government's EB-5 program, investors get green cards for themselves and their families if they invest in a purportedly job-creating ...

As I wrote last month , the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), responding to a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request regarding Barclays Center noise complaints and inspections, initially told me they had no responsive documents. After my post, they soon responded, blaming a coding error--there is a "Barclays Center" file but not a "620 Atlantic Avenue" one. OK. So they sent me 27 pages of materials, which were not particularly helpful. Some pages consisted of copies of inspection reports by DEP staff and notices of violations--several I'd already seen. (One has been sustained, and the arena paid a $3200 fine .) Others consisted of emails from area residents to DEP to set up readings inside residents' apartments. But there's nothing regarding what exactly the arena operators--officially, Brooklyn Events Center--are doing or considering, whether regulating the volume of concerts or making other changes in the building ...

I have an article in Streetsblog today,  Barclays Center Mysteries: Three Big Unknowns About Arena Transportation , about the delays and uncertainty plaguing three aspects of Barclays Center plans: the Transportation Demand Management plan, the surface parking lot, and the reopening of the Carlton Avenue Bridge. While careful readers of this blog know a good deal of the story, what's new is further evidence of delays--and evasion--regarding the Carlton Avenue Bridge. I explain that in the Streetsblog article and do so in greater length here. There's huge pressure to get the bridge reopened before the first event at the Barclays Center arena, the September 28 Jay-Z concert. So developer Forest City Ratner is considering cutting corners: opening the bridge before the asphalt is paved. On schedule--really? Moreover, Empire State Development (ESD), the state agency overseeing the project, has continued to obfuscate on whether the bridge is delayed. Weekly reports fr...

It's Sunshine Week , a national initiative organized by press groups (and allies) to spotlight open government, but sunshine regarding New York State government--notably, Empire State Development ESD)--seems to be lacking. I've been waiting 18 months for a response to a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request from ESD, as I'll describe further below. And journalists from much larger organizations, and even lawmakers, have been stymied, according to a 3/10/12 Albany Times-Union article headlined  Delay hurts public access: Cuomo administration offers a mixed record in release of information to New Yorkers . Jimmy Vielkind reported: He boasts of running an administration that is "the most transparent and accountable in history," but Gov. Andrew Cuomo's response record to Freedom of Information Law requests contains several blemishes. It took six months for journalists from the Associated Press to see a complete list of questions Cuomo was asked in a...